An artist responds to current trends in politics, culture, assassination, and technology
I’ve been a man of few words lately. For the past year I’ve been much more interested in images, which have some advantages over opinions. While opinions are often clutched fiercely and yelled loudly, images can be more subtle and persuasive. Perhaps the highest types of images have no prosaic meaning, express no opinions, but simply reflect something deep about the nature of the universe.
Popular art is less lofty, but still retains the benefit of being open to interpretation. My parodies of propaganda posters (below) are really not limited to poking fun at Russia. One prose meaning to be gleaned is that authoritarianism and totalitarianism are not unknown in the Era of Trump. These tendencies are found in every society, and correspond to something dark in human nature.
Likewise, the tendency to manipulate people by gathering detailed information about them is not limited to, say, the old East German Stasi. Randy Newman may never have written a song about the Privacy Policies you find on corporate web sites, but “if you paid attention, you’d be worried too.” The unholy alliance between technology and snooping has been a theme of science fiction for at least 60 years. A classic 1963 episode of The Outer Limits titled “O.B.I.T.” comprises a dark, expressive televisual essay on the subject.
Nor is credulous techno-utopianism confined to emerging nations. There are segments of my own country, America, which are obsessed with tracking the latest releases of iPhones or nVidia graphics cards, as if these things would change the face of human civilization. But Materialism 2.0 is really not much different than 1.x.
I like to think Alexei Navalny would have gotten a laugh. One of the qualities which distinguished him as an effective and popular opposition figure was his sense of humor, even in the midst of adversity. These images tie in with previous posts where I’ve connected Donald Trump and Russia in a casual way. See:
Drain The Swamp or Pad The Reptile Fund?
Donald Trump vs. Ferris Fremont
The latter is especially relevant because it explores a number of topics both in the news and pervading the thought ether — namely: assassination, dictators, authoritarianism, and the adequacy (or inadequacy) of Russian technology. I posted this excerpt from a Philip K. Dick audiobook (Radio Free Albemuth) nearly six years ago, and it has only become more relevant with the passage of time:
I don’t claim that Donald Trump = Ferris Fremont, nor do I endorse Dick’s often paranoid (and sometimes simplistic) world view. But he does drive home the point that authoritarianism is authoritarianism, whether left-wing or right-wing.
If you play the above excerpt or read the 1976 novel, you would find that in Dick’s alternate history of America in the 70s, citizens have to listen to a weekly speech by the president, and fill out little cards:
Then there was the weekly “Conversation with the Man We Trust,” Ferris F. Fremont speaking from a firelit alcove in the White House. … These synthetic chats were carried by all networks in prime time, and it was a good idea to listen. You were supposed to do so with your front door open, so that roving bands of FAPers could make spot checks. They passed out little cards on which various simple-minded questions about the current speech were asked; you were to check the right answers and then drop the card in a mailbox.
…
Sometimes the questions did seem devious, with the high possibility of making an accidental incriminating answer. One went:Russia is becoming (1) weaker; (2) stronger; (3) about the same in relationship to the Free World.
Naturally, Rachel and Nicholas and I, doing our cards in unison, marked (2). The ideology of the authorities always stressed Russia’s increasing strength, and the need for the Free World to continually double its arms budget in order just to keep up.
However, a later question rendered this one suspect.
Russian technology is (1) very good; (2) adequate; (3) typically inept.
Well, if you marked (1) you seemed to be paying the Communists a compliment. (2) was probably the best bet, since it probably was true, but the way (3) was worded seemed to suggest that the right-thinking citizen would reflexively mark it. After all, what could one expect from captive Slavic minds? Certainly, typical ineptness. We were very good, not them.But if their technology was typically inept, then how could (2) be the correct answer on the previous question? How did a nation with typically inept technology become stronger than ourselves? Nicholas and Rachel and I returned to the previous question and changed our answers to (1). That way it dovetailed with typically inept. The weekly questionnaire had many pitfalls. The U.S.S.R., like a Japanese wrestler, was both dumb and clever at the same time, strong and weak, likely to win and a sure bet to lose. All we in the Free World had to do was never falter. We managed this by turning in our cards regularly. It was the least we could do.
This is Dick’s parody of American propaganda during the Cold War era. The “FAPers” are “Friends of the American People,” a right-wing vigilante group with government ties. The banter about Russian technology reminds us of the recent Tucker Carlson debacle, when the former Fox News host visited Russia. The Independent‘s headline says it all: “Tucker Carlson mocked over fawning praise for Russian shopping trolleys.” (Someone should really send old Tucker a box set of Trollied, the lowbrow Britcom situated in a supermarket.)
Jon Stewart gave Carlson a razzing on The Daily Show [7:43-12:54]:
I wouldn’t go as far as Stewart (nor drop his F-bombs), but he does trenchantly observe that the far right is grooming Americans to warm to dictators. Putin is the gateway drug. Carlson hopes voters will be mainlining Trump this November.
Stewart has come under fire in the U.S. for “bothsidesism” — meaning that as someone who’s cynical and disaffected, he takes the view that Republicans and Democrats are equally bad (or nearly so). I have to gently side with his critics on that one, with the caveat that his critics tend to be somewhat humorless.
I’m reminded of John le Carré’s nuanced take on East-West politics. In Drain The Swamp… I touched on le Carré’s “Karla Trilogy,” which is Cold War spy stuff with an exceedingly nuanced perspective. Le Carré favours the West over the East, but just barely. His characters go through much soul-searching over the rank materialism they observe in the West (Marxists call it “commodity fetishism”), but in the end they find it less disagreeable than the brutal authoritarianism of the East.
There is a difference between bad and worse. As a free spirit, I couldn’t bear living under Trump-style fascism, so I strongly support Democratic candidates.
Propaganda is not the sole province of any one nation or government. Soviet style posters happen to be a parody-rich target, but here in the U.S. both Dems and Repubs (and even some news organizations) emit their fair share of propaganda. I reserve the right to satirize them all.
And of course, politics (even the best politics) can only take us so far. For human happiness, human progress, we also need the spiritual aspect. That spiritual aspect is very important! Without it we are lost in empty catacombs of political theory, fighting each other in the dark.
Needless to say, art is also very important. Art and spirituality remind us of eternal truths. If we no longer see or recognize those truths, then politics — whether left or right — cannot save us. The best art is not political, but it is beautiful; and beauty is radical in its own way because it sweeps away the ugliness, smallness, and meanness with which human life is often burdened.
Michael Howard
The views expressed are my own, and do not represent any other person or organization.
P.S. If you watch the Jon Stewart clip (above), which includes segments from Tucker Carlson’s trips to a Russian subway and Russian supermarket, you would observe that Carlson doesn’t try to sell the American public on Russian political theory. Rather, the subtext of his pitch is that with a dictator in charge, Americans would have better stuff! This is a variation on the old “Hitler made the trains run on time” argument. Never mind that those clockwork-perfect trains carried millions of people to the death camps.
LINKS
Randy Newman: “It’s a Jungle Out There”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBdF3E2NVI8
The Outer Limits: “O.B.I.T.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lw6Ic5rTZog
MST3K: It’s a Hair Dryer and a CD Player! (00:03:59 – 00:04:36)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiUQ78kozjk
MST3K: Design for Dreaming (commodity fetishism)
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6kozj0
The Dalai Lama of Tibet (on greed)
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2bvdkp
Vintage Hair Dryer Photos (retro-futurism)
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/hair-dryer-photos_n_4961380
Temple-Song-Hearts 1991 Concert (Russia)
https://ethicsandspirituality.wordpress.com/2017/03/09/temple-song-hearts-1991-concert/
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Ethics and Spirituality 